Plan for Chris Newman (ChazCross)
by Chris Newman · 11/19/2005 (2:26 am) · 7 comments
Sometimes i wonder if im doing the right thing.
Game making has always been a dream for me, that was my goal when i was younger, that was my goal when i was in college and its still my goal. But somehow im not fighting for it as much as i was before, my current job has come in the way. For years i worked in a shop doing inspection work and a few short lived software projects, but now i work for a great company called Web Solutions of North America It is a company that consist of 3 people, Jason the biz guy, Brad the web designer and ME, the programmer. Ive been finding this job relaxing and completely satifiying. Im starting to wonder if this is my calling, if this is what i want to do, but then again i have my game programming dream......
When im at work, i work really well. I get things done to the best of my ability with lil to no distractions. But when im at home, where i would be doing my game programming, i find myself distracted alot. Its hard to get any work done at home any more. If i was doing this in a work enviroment, i would excel.
Sometimes i get spurts of motivation, and i get alot done in with game related stuff. But i think i need someone activaly pushing me to get me going, to bring out my best abilitys while im working from home. Sometimes it just seems that no one really cares about the work i do, and i end up wondering if what i am doing is worth it.
I created the T2D ImageDataBlock Tool Which allows you to easily turn your images into image blocks.
And am working in the T2D Animation DataBlock Tool that allows you to visualy create your animation datablock.
I release a partialy working alpha release so people could see how it works and get some feedback, ive had a few downloads and no feedback on what was working. Its kind of depressing wondering if i was creating something noone wanted, so producation has come to a standstill untill i find my motivation again.
I even gave a call for developers who were unhappy with the current toolsets in the Torque products to assist me in creating new tools and improving the current ones. This was answered by no-one or perhaps i havnt asked in the right places. I have ideas for many editors that would make our lifes easier, but i cant do them all on my own.
This is where i belive my calling "Here" is, to help create great tools. That is what i have done in all of my programming life, that is what i do now at work, that is why i Love it there, and this is what i want to do here.
After reading Melvs plan, im excited again about T2D. I think T2D is the best 2D Solution out there.
I am now dedicating myself to releasing the T2D Animation Datablock Tool alongside thenext T2D release, and updating the T2D Image Datablock Tool too.
On the way home form work today, all i could think about was RagDoll physics. I would love to get this into TGE/TSE. Everytime i read something about it, the challenge is how to network it.
My idea on this is creating a ragdoll class: In short it would work like this....
Lets say you have a player, a giant comes along and squezes him and now he dies. The giant throws him as far as he could..... after the player dies, and the player object is removed, the ragdoll object is created in its place. As the giant is throwing him, the server only sees the same info it was seeing when it was a player object.. xys pos.... etc.... But the client gets the position and the other normal info from the server and then does the ragdoll calculations on the client itself.
Now the ragdoll objects his the wall it was thrown at, all the server sees is the bounding box hitting the wall. The client itself has also been keeping track of the ragdoll object and knows the collison with the wall is about to happen and does its hit box or poly testing and does what a ragdoll is soposed to do. On the server the object has collided and is now bouncing off the wall or sliding down it, it does not keep track of the head, arms, legs.. etc, just the main position of the object. Each client will do its own ragdoll calculations, so on every client the main position of the object will be the same, but the arms, legs, head.. etc will be doing its own thing on each client, so its a good chance that no 2 ragdolls will be in the same position after the object comes to a rest.
Game making has always been a dream for me, that was my goal when i was younger, that was my goal when i was in college and its still my goal. But somehow im not fighting for it as much as i was before, my current job has come in the way. For years i worked in a shop doing inspection work and a few short lived software projects, but now i work for a great company called Web Solutions of North America It is a company that consist of 3 people, Jason the biz guy, Brad the web designer and ME, the programmer. Ive been finding this job relaxing and completely satifiying. Im starting to wonder if this is my calling, if this is what i want to do, but then again i have my game programming dream......
When im at work, i work really well. I get things done to the best of my ability with lil to no distractions. But when im at home, where i would be doing my game programming, i find myself distracted alot. Its hard to get any work done at home any more. If i was doing this in a work enviroment, i would excel.
Sometimes i get spurts of motivation, and i get alot done in with game related stuff. But i think i need someone activaly pushing me to get me going, to bring out my best abilitys while im working from home. Sometimes it just seems that no one really cares about the work i do, and i end up wondering if what i am doing is worth it.
I created the T2D ImageDataBlock Tool Which allows you to easily turn your images into image blocks.
And am working in the T2D Animation DataBlock Tool that allows you to visualy create your animation datablock.
I release a partialy working alpha release so people could see how it works and get some feedback, ive had a few downloads and no feedback on what was working. Its kind of depressing wondering if i was creating something noone wanted, so producation has come to a standstill untill i find my motivation again.
I even gave a call for developers who were unhappy with the current toolsets in the Torque products to assist me in creating new tools and improving the current ones. This was answered by no-one or perhaps i havnt asked in the right places. I have ideas for many editors that would make our lifes easier, but i cant do them all on my own.
This is where i belive my calling "Here" is, to help create great tools. That is what i have done in all of my programming life, that is what i do now at work, that is why i Love it there, and this is what i want to do here.
After reading Melvs plan, im excited again about T2D. I think T2D is the best 2D Solution out there.
I am now dedicating myself to releasing the T2D Animation Datablock Tool alongside thenext T2D release, and updating the T2D Image Datablock Tool too.
On the way home form work today, all i could think about was RagDoll physics. I would love to get this into TGE/TSE. Everytime i read something about it, the challenge is how to network it.
My idea on this is creating a ragdoll class: In short it would work like this....
Lets say you have a player, a giant comes along and squezes him and now he dies. The giant throws him as far as he could..... after the player dies, and the player object is removed, the ragdoll object is created in its place. As the giant is throwing him, the server only sees the same info it was seeing when it was a player object.. xys pos.... etc.... But the client gets the position and the other normal info from the server and then does the ragdoll calculations on the client itself.
Now the ragdoll objects his the wall it was thrown at, all the server sees is the bounding box hitting the wall. The client itself has also been keeping track of the ragdoll object and knows the collison with the wall is about to happen and does its hit box or poly testing and does what a ragdoll is soposed to do. On the server the object has collided and is now bouncing off the wall or sliding down it, it does not keep track of the head, arms, legs.. etc, just the main position of the object. Each client will do its own ragdoll calculations, so on every client the main position of the object will be the same, but the arms, legs, head.. etc will be doing its own thing on each client, so its a good chance that no 2 ragdolls will be in the same position after the object comes to a rest.
About the author
#2
You've brought up issues that have probably affected all of us at various times in our lives. Audience interest and appreciation are important elements for creative people. When those things aren't present, motivation can really suffer. I'm guessing that even the Garage Games guys experience the same kinds of feelings from time to time.
It sounds like you're in soul-searching mode right now, and I'm hoping it's ok for the rest of us to offer some encouragement. If I overstep my bounds with any of this, feel free to ignore it. :)
You have good ideas, but you're getting very little feedback about them. As I read you plan, I wondered if part of the problem is an overall sense that there are no new ideas left to explore. Sometimes I feel like everything has already been done before by someone with more money and a larger team to back them up. Those kinds of thoughts really get me down as a budding developer. And from a community standpoint, maybe the "been there, done that" attitude is why more people don't get excited about some of your project ideas. It's easy to get jaded in this modern age. And that is just a short step away from giving up on our dreams.
A favorite concept for me is that of a literary writer's club. Back in the 1930s or 40s, there was a group of writers called 'the Inklings'. It included people like J.R.R. Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings fame) and C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia). Those people got together, read each other's works, commented, critiqued, poked fun at and generally sharpened each other's works. They were like-minded yet remained independent. That safe-haven idea has always appealed to me from a creative standpoint. I can see something like that for game developers and tool designers.
Maybe something similar could help you -- and others of us. But, of course, that level of open-ness can be dangerous.
Aaron E.
[Edit: completely changed direction with this post. Twice. Sorry]
11/19/2005 (12:32 pm)
Chris,You've brought up issues that have probably affected all of us at various times in our lives. Audience interest and appreciation are important elements for creative people. When those things aren't present, motivation can really suffer. I'm guessing that even the Garage Games guys experience the same kinds of feelings from time to time.
It sounds like you're in soul-searching mode right now, and I'm hoping it's ok for the rest of us to offer some encouragement. If I overstep my bounds with any of this, feel free to ignore it. :)
You have good ideas, but you're getting very little feedback about them. As I read you plan, I wondered if part of the problem is an overall sense that there are no new ideas left to explore. Sometimes I feel like everything has already been done before by someone with more money and a larger team to back them up. Those kinds of thoughts really get me down as a budding developer. And from a community standpoint, maybe the "been there, done that" attitude is why more people don't get excited about some of your project ideas. It's easy to get jaded in this modern age. And that is just a short step away from giving up on our dreams.
A favorite concept for me is that of a literary writer's club. Back in the 1930s or 40s, there was a group of writers called 'the Inklings'. It included people like J.R.R. Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings fame) and C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia). Those people got together, read each other's works, commented, critiqued, poked fun at and generally sharpened each other's works. They were like-minded yet remained independent. That safe-haven idea has always appealed to me from a creative standpoint. I can see something like that for game developers and tool designers.
Maybe something similar could help you -- and others of us. But, of course, that level of open-ness can be dangerous.
Aaron E.
[Edit: completely changed direction with this post. Twice. Sorry]
#3
I guess you hit the nail right on the head.
I used to greatly enjoy game programming and would have no issues finding motivation.
I created my own 2d and 3d game engines, which sucked, but the 2d one was good. I gave that up for T2D. Ive created a few prototypes in TGE, a 3d pong and a boat racing demo.
I still want to do this so bad, but i keep finding myself putting down torqescript and doing web development reserch instead. Conflicting interist sucks!
11/19/2005 (1:59 pm)
@Arron EI guess you hit the nail right on the head.
I used to greatly enjoy game programming and would have no issues finding motivation.
I created my own 2d and 3d game engines, which sucked, but the 2d one was good. I gave that up for T2D. Ive created a few prototypes in TGE, a 3d pong and a boat racing demo.
I still want to do this so bad, but i keep finding myself putting down torqescript and doing web development reserch instead. Conflicting interist sucks!
#4
Maybe you can look into integrating some of your interests and exercise several talents at the same time. If you're curious, here are some ideas that might work for you:
** Create an In-game web browser by integrating open source non GPL code (Mozilla maybe??) -- Then players could search for game walkthroughs on the web while pinned down in an alley.
** Add streaming live television broadcasts into Torque (never miss your favorite shows)
** Build a Dreamweaver-like editor for in-game .HFL document creation. Even a FrontPage clone wouldn't be bad.
There are lots of other cool ways you can combine your creative passions. And any one of them might lead you down other paths with their own unexpected rewards.
Aaron E.
11/19/2005 (5:24 pm)
Chris,Maybe you can look into integrating some of your interests and exercise several talents at the same time. If you're curious, here are some ideas that might work for you:
** Create an In-game web browser by integrating open source non GPL code (Mozilla maybe??) -- Then players could search for game walkthroughs on the web while pinned down in an alley.
** Add streaming live television broadcasts into Torque (never miss your favorite shows)
** Build a Dreamweaver-like editor for in-game .HFL document creation. Even a FrontPage clone wouldn't be bad.
There are lots of other cool ways you can combine your creative passions. And any one of them might lead you down other paths with their own unexpected rewards.
Aaron E.
#5
I consider myself more of a tool developer, more because i feel like i need great tools to write a game, so when you talk about an animation editor i think you rock more :)
11/19/2005 (9:25 pm)
i have to agree with you Chris about being excited with the t2d 1.1 release.I consider myself more of a tool developer, more because i feel like i need great tools to write a game, so when you talk about an animation editor i think you rock more :)
#6
I was going to use T2D.net to write it, until i relized that everyone else couldnt run the editor unless they were also using T2D.net.
11/19/2005 (9:31 pm)
@JasonI was going to use T2D.net to write it, until i relized that everyone else couldnt run the editor unless they were also using T2D.net.
#7
There are only a few joints that need to be accounted for:
2 knees
2 elbows
1 mid-hip
1 mid-shoulder
1 head
____
7 joints total
If you calculate the location and rotation of the knee in relative position to the loc+rot of the hip, you'll have accurate placement for the upper and lower leg. This will leave the foot to be inaccurate, but that is rather minor and could vary between clients.
If you apply the same concept between the shoulder and elbow, you'd still get accurate bone placement, until you get to the hand. I figure at this point, the bodies will likely be corpses and being flung around the environment like in UT2k4 and rotation of the hands and feet would be of the least concern to players.
7 joints contain much less information to pass over to other clients than 14+ bones.
Just an idea.
11/21/2005 (5:44 pm)
I have an idea for keeping the data to be transfered low for ragdoll physics. There are only a few joints that need to be accounted for:
2 knees
2 elbows
1 mid-hip
1 mid-shoulder
1 head
____
7 joints total
If you calculate the location and rotation of the knee in relative position to the loc+rot of the hip, you'll have accurate placement for the upper and lower leg. This will leave the foot to be inaccurate, but that is rather minor and could vary between clients.
If you apply the same concept between the shoulder and elbow, you'd still get accurate bone placement, until you get to the hand. I figure at this point, the bodies will likely be corpses and being flung around the environment like in UT2k4 and rotation of the hands and feet would be of the least concern to players.
7 joints contain much less information to pass over to other clients than 14+ bones.
Just an idea.
Torque Owner Vashner
And I think T2d'er's do appreciate your tools. Just that everyone is / was waiting for 1.1 and T2d has gotten stagnant for the moment. But don't fret.